Senior Counsel, Warner Bros Discovery
Legal, Commercial Partnerships
Entertainment company
Open for applications
Entertainment company
1001+ employees
Open for applications
1001+ employees
Company mission
To take the world’s greatest possibilities and make them a reality - creating impact, inspiring imagination, and building connections.
Role
Who you are
- Technically very proficient lawyer – needs to have an excellent understanding of regulatory, contract law, consumer and data protection law, IP/ IT and corporate law and excellent drafting skills
- Must be a qualified lawyer – excellent academics, training, and experience at top law firm an advantage
- Negotiation skills must be proven – to deliver both proper legal protection to the company and excellent commercial results
- High competency required in IT skills (e.g., Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel)
- Excellent interpersonal skills – ability to work effectively at all levels within the company:
- Clear and concise communicator (both orally and written) – ability to present and distil legally complex issues into legally compliant but practical and commercial solutions, in a way that engages the key stakeholders
- Well organised and attention to detail: this role requires focus and energy to ensure that nothing falls between the cracks
- All areas noted above in skills, plus good commercial knowledge essential – must have a deep understanding of the impact that deals potentially have on other revenue streams to involve other parts of the business as appropriate
- Professional: calm under pressure, clear thinking, well organised, proactive and grasps concepts quickly
- Flexible and commercially pragmatic
- Will be a key provider of day-to-day support to the business so must be a good team player, and have flexible, hands-on approach
- Emotionally intelligent outlook – must have the ability to diffuse and calm others
- Inclusive behaviour – ensuring that all key stakeholders are consistently kept in the loop
- Ability to manage own time judiciously and deal effectively with competing interests
- Confident, sociable and ability to interact with clients from different cultures and backgrounds
What the job involves
- Negotiate and draft to a high standard various commercial agreements (including distribution and ad sales agreements), provide legal advice to senior stakeholders on a range of issues, and provide support to the legal team as required
- Liaise closely with the relevant commercial stakeholders, including senior management, for specific regions
- This role will be challenging and wide-ranging, with a focus on commercial partnerships/ distribution agreements, ad sales agreements, general commercial agreements, regulatory matters and compliance matters
- Drafting and negotiating standard form and bespoke distribution/ commercial partnerships contracts, with a particular focus on regions within EMEA. This includes linear and non-linear carriage deals with third party platforms via a range of distribution means, across the entire WBD portfoliio of content – from premium entertainment to premium sports
- Supporting all aspects of the distribution business with TV platforms, including contracts, strategic issues, dispute resolution, and contract compliance issues
- Key lawyer for a wide range of commercial matters including ad sales, digital sales, IP/IT, marketing and PR, sponsorship, technical/ MPT&O, facilities and real estate
- Legal support on handling regulatory matters generally
- Advising on, coordinating and, where applicable, supervising external counsel on, key litigation disputes and enforcement policies (e.g. bad debt, piracy)
- Support lawyer on certain key regional and international deals
- Overseas travel, where necessary, to attend internal and external meetings
Salary benchmarks
Our take
Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) is an entertainment company formed from the 2022 merger of Warner Bros and Discovery. It is a leader in the creation, production, distribution, licensing, and marketing of content, with Warner Bros alone boasting a huge library – more than 100,000 hours of programming – before the companies were joined. WBD’s portfolio includes Discovery Channel, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Discovery+, HBO Max, and franchises like “Batman” and “Harry Potter”.
Both of the company’s previous businesses have operated throughout the digitisation of the media space. David Zaslav, CEO of WBD, headed Discovery during its expansion into digital media, to make it a “content company” over a “cable company”. The recent focus for Warner Bros has been on next-gen distribution efforts, expanding the availability of its content across platforms and devices to reach the modern viewer. The new company has plans to migrate to one tech stack, which will require extensive retooling, as well as exploring cost-saving automation opportunities for its operations.
Since the merger, the new giant that is Warner Bros Discovery has had a shaky start, forcing the company to wind down operations and cut back on content, which included the very public scrapping of the “Batgirl” movie. However, it now seems the company may have been ahead of the curve, as a wider trend of cutbacks has been seen from peers in the space. This early move, combined with a hyper-focus on cash generation, seeks to establish WBD as an outperformer in an industry on the downturn.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Company values
- Act as One Team: Trust each other, succeed together, and growth together
- Create What's Next: Be curious, innovate, and focus on the future
- Empower Storytelling: Put creators, consumers and partners at the center, and share extraordinary stories
- Champion Inclusion: Empower others, have courage, and pursue equity
- Dream It & Own It: Advocate the mission, ove with speed, and drive results
Company HQ
Midtown Manhattan, New York, NY
Articles
Leadership
David Zaslav
(CEO, not founder)Spent 17 years at NBCUniversal including as President of NBC Cable LLC and NBC Media LLC.
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